Now, I can add dark chocolates with lavender cream filling to that list.

These chocolates also provided me with an opportunity to play with coconut cream. I have had a can of coconut cream (full-fat coconut milk) in my fridge for, oh, about six months. I have a terrible tendency to sit on new ingredients in such a way, waiting for inspiration or "the right time" or something sufficiently worthy of the ingredient in question.

Chocolate with a lavender cream filling seemed like a sufficiently important cause, and once I got going, I found coconut cream to be very fun indeed. As many of you will know, when you chill a can in the fridge (24 hours would do; 6 months is optional), you can remove it, turn the can upside down, open it, drain off the liquid, and be left with a solid, cream-like mass. If you whip it, it goes fluffy.

There is something delightful about ingredients changing form between your very eyes, and I think that even if these chocolates had turned out terribly, the process of making them would have been sufficient reward. As it is, they turned out quite well, and I am just a little bit (or a lot bit) in love with them.

Clockwise from top left: Solid coconut cream, whipped coconut cream, the mess involved with these creations!, and a close up of the lavender cream filling.

If you're not sure about a lavender filling, you could easily adapt this recipe to make other sorts of chocolates. Adding cocoa and chilli to the cream mix would give a wonderful chocolate chilli truffle. Alternatively, you could go with mint - always a classic - or lemon. I am delighted with the lavender outcome, but am still keen to experiment more with future batches.

Remove your chilled can of coconut milk from the fridge, flip it upside down, and remove the top. Pour out the liquid and then spoon the solid mass into a large mixing bowl. Reserve half of the solid coconut mixture for another time. Beat the remaining half with an electric mixer, on high speed, for 2 to 3 minutes or until light and fluffy.

Add the agave nectar, custard powder and vanilla to the coconut cream mix, and beat briefly to combine. Add the lavender and salt and stir through. Place in the fridge or freezer to chill for at least 30 minutes (this will make it easier to use the cream mix in your chocolates).

When the lavender cream filling has chilled, place the cocoa butter in a heat proof dish and heat over low heat on the stove top, stirring regularly, until fully melted. Add the cocoa powder and agave and stir well, still over low heat, until smooth.

Set your silicon moulds or cupcake liners out on a chopping board or other firm surface. Use approximately half of the chocolate mixture to fill the bottom of each mould/liner. Using a teaspoon, spoon a small amount of the lavender cream filling over the lower chocolate layer. Cover with the remaining chocolate.

Set in the fridge for at least 4 hours before removing from the moulds. Store in the fridge.

With time, I might even manage to make chocolates that look as neat as the ones that inspired these...

What are your thoughts on lavender flavours in food?Or have you got any favourite uses for coconut cream? I still have half a can spare!

32 comments:

I feel like I could pepper my comment with exclamation marks but will also try and be restrained. I have never tried the coconut milk in the fridge trick - but will have to - even if I need to do the 6 month run up. Was it a 400g tin of coconut milk you used for the recipe? Am curious about the custard powder in this - have you seen this used elsewhere or is it just something you love? And I wish I could say I was using my lavender as much as you do - this sounds a truly exciting use for it and looks like something I really want to try - must buy some other chocolate moulds than my easter egg ones that are now terribly unseasonal

It was very careless of me not to mention the tin size - yes, 375g (I've updated the post too). As for the custard powder, I put it in my Easter tahini eggs on a whim and liked the result, so ran with it again here! I have a box of it that I never use so it's more about finding uses for it than loving it particularly. It's standing in for corn flour or flour really, but gives a slightly lighter result (you can't taste custard per se). You could easily use corn flour instead though, or anything else to slightly thicken the filling mix.

I highly recommend putting a can of coconut milk in the fridge, as then it looks at you every time you go in there (although mine did end up at the back) and I found my imagination returned to possible uses semi-regularly :-)

Wow - these are really cute. Like you, I tend to buy a random ingredient and then it just sits in the pantry... I am very impressed your coconut milk survived a long time in the fridge.. It has been my goal to eat through the perishables before we move so I am unearthing a bunch of new ingredients, hehe. I grew a lavender plant last summer but it only made the tiniest buds at the end of the year so I didn't do anything with it... and now it looks dead. I hope it perks up now that it is outside... We'll have to see. I don't think I have ever tried eating something with lavender, especially not chocolate.

Fortunately for me it was a can, and they last quite long periods, otherwise I might have lost the ingredient in question to non-survival! (And that has happened before...)

The first time I used lavender I used the garden-grown variety, but was then introduced to culinary lavender, which is grown specifically for eating. It's has a slightly more subtle flavour and less bitterness. I recommend it!

I'm not a huge fan of lavender in food, but then again I'm not big on perfume flavours in food in general. No Earl Grey for me, my only exception is my inexplicable love for turkish delight. But I love this revelation about coconut cream, I'm now wondering what amazing creations that could lead to.

Coconut cream is bliss on anything for dessert so I'm sure you won't have too much trouble using it up.... or make a curry :DHmmmm, I don't really like using flowers in food - everytime I've tried it so far I just feel like its something i should be smelling not eating! Your choccies look so cute and delicate!!! :D

Wow, they look really powerful and indulgent. What's great to know though, is that with your choice of ingredients they are pretty damn healthy.

Incidentally, I thoroughly agree with the trust in lavender as a culinary ingredient. There is a lavender farm near me called long barn which I will definitely be doing a post on this summer, it is a wonderful place!

LOVE cooking with lavender. It has such an awesome flavour. These look so good. I can honestly say I haven't made my own chocolate since I did the class a few years back. Other than my bark the other day.. but I suppose that doesn't count.

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